Welcome to Triclinium: Join my banquet

In Ancient Rome banquets were held in tricliniums where philosophy, literature and art were discussed along with intrigue and scandal. On my blog you can enjoy interviews, reviews, guests posts from historical novelists and art. And also history – both trivia and the serious stuff! So come and join my banquet!

The attached image is from a wall painting in the Tomb of the Shields in Tarquinia, Italy (C4th BCE) It is one of my favourites. It depicts the beautiful Velia Seitithi and her husband Larth Velcha upon their dining couch. She rests her hand tenderly on his shoulder while he, bearded and wreathed, extends his hand to hers as she offers him an egg, symbol of fertility. To one side a female slave in fine robes fans them, her hair cut short. The divan’s coverlet is lavishly woven with geometrical patterns. You can almost touch the eggs, fruit and cake upon the repository table in front of them. Velia wears a semi transparent robe with a bordered mantle and gorgeous little ankle boots. There is a golden diadem on her fair hair which falls in corkscrew curls, her dangling earrings like clustered grapes. To me, the couple are gazing at each other with tenderness, captured in this intimate pose for eternity.

Elisabeth Storrs is the author of the Tales of Ancient Rome. Learn more at www.elisabethstorrs.com.
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